


The Musician

by cuivresdesax



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Humor, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-16 12:07:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9270047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuivresdesax/pseuds/cuivresdesax
Summary: This is an alternate universe, in which Justin has a deep distate for musicians and Brian is way too sure of himself.Written for Emynn as part of the 2016 Queer as Folk Holyday Gift Exchange.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [emynn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/emynn/gifts).



"Oh no, he’s here again," whispered Justin to Daphne. Daphne was everything but discreet so she immediately turned her head in every direction until she spotted the musician who had been Justin’s nightmare for the last 10 days.

She let out an envious sigh. "He’s so dreamy…"

"Daphne! He’s not dreamy, he’s creepy! Come on, let’s use the back door." And he dragged her into an alley so he could enter the diner where he worked part time without passing by the musician that was settling next to the front door.

Justin grabbed his apron while Daphne sat in a booth. Then the musician started playing loud enough that he could be heard from inside the diner. Justin rolled his eyes. Another cheesy love song. How pathetic could this guy be? It had all started because Justin was a nice guy, so when he had passed the musician playing on the street 10 days ago, he had noticed that no-one had given him any money, not even a dime, and that no-one stopped to listen to him playing. Since Justin sometimes tried to make some extra money by sketching people in parks, he knew how frustrating it could be when you couldn’t get anyone’s attention. So he had stopped and pretended to enjoy the music, clapping loudly when each song ended. It worked, after a while, a few people stopped to listen as well and Justin finally put a $10 bill in the guitar cover and walked away. 

But the next day, as he was working his shift in the diner, he realized someone was staring at him from the outside. Looking up, he saw the musician looking straight at him. The guy was gorgeous, so Justin smiled at him in an automatic response. The guy smiled back and entered the diner, sitting at the counter. When Justin walked over to take his order, the guy smiled at him smugly.

"So? I got you good with my music, right?" 

Justin was taken aback. Was this guy serious? Obviously he was, because he just went on.

"Happens to me all the time. I start playing, and before I realize it, I get a new groupie. It’s pretty normal, though, I am that good. So? What do you say? Want to take advantage of me before I’m too famous and you can’t get near me through all my hot bodyguards?"

Okay, he wasn’t only serious, he was an obnoxious piece of shit. A talentless piece of shit, because as far as Justin could tell, the guy had an average voice and average guitar skills. He wasn’t even playing his own music, just some note to note versions of famous songs. Unfortunately, the guy wasn’t finished praising himself.

" And if you think my fingers are fantastic with the guitar, wait till you feel how amazing they are on a body. Even better, that’s telling something, right?"

Justin’s first intention had been to tell the guy to fuck off, with a few chosen insults about pathetic losers thinking their shit didn’t stink, but this was too much. He burst out laughing. 

The guy obviously hadn’t expected this reaction and seemed a little startled. Then he frowned when Justin kept on laughing, red faced and tears rolling down his cheeks. When he realized Justin wasn’t going to stop, he huffed, clearly annoyed, and stood with all the dignity he could muster before walking out of the diner, while Justin kept on laughing helplessly.

In the evening, he recalled the encounter to his roommate and best friend Daphne and they both laughed some more. Justin was certain that he would never see the arrogant bastard again, so he was more than a little surprised - and annoyed- when he arrived at work the next day and found the musician playing right in front of the diner. He was having a little more success here and a few guys were standing listening to him play. But of course, this was Liberty Avenue, gay temple of Pittsburgh, and the guitarist was extremely good looking, so the guys probably would have stopped even if he had been the worst guitar player and singer in the world.

When the musician noticed Justin trying to slip into the diner, he smirked at him and played louder, adding some very unnecessary (in Justin’s opinion anyway) swings of his hips, to which of course this crowd reacted with enthusiasm. Justin rolled his eyes and went to work. About half an hour later, the music thankfully stopped, and Justin watched the musician packing his guitar and leaving with a very good looking guy that had been part of the audience. Before leaving, the musician turned and faced the inside of the diner, caught Justin staring and winked at him. Justin felt his cheeks redden and turned away angrily. Fucker.

The same routine went on for days and Justin was fed up. The worst was that everyone in the diner seemed to love the guitarist. He drew in quite a crowd, many of them at one point entering the diner to order something, so the manager refused Justin’s request to ask the musician to go play elsewhere. The patrons also enjoyed the view of the guy playing, which was just as good from the back. And when the musician stopped playing, everyone in the diner was taking bets to which guy in the audience he was going to pick to go with him. It was a great show and in other circumstances, Justin would be joining in on the fun, but he knew how much of a jerk the guy was. By then he knew the guy’s name was Brian, that he was just 1 year older than Justin, (therefore he was 19) and that he was describing himself as a mix between Eric Clapton and Justin Timberlake. Right. Oh, and apparently, he really was very good with his hands; and his tongue; and his dick. Justin was certain that this last rumor was just as likely as the rest. There was no way someone that conceited could be concerned about his partner’s pleasure. Probably, he just had a big cock and that was enough to satisfy those drooling idiots.

Of course, Justin’s opinion was a little biased. He had had a one year relationship with another musician, a violinist, that had ended just 3 months ago. Ethan had an ego that matched Brian’s, but at least he was extremely talented (though no as much as he thought). During their one year, he had called Justin his muse, which, in fact, meant being his servant, making sure that the only thing the maestro should focus on was his music. Justin had been young and inexperienced, Ethan was his first lover, and an artist just like him. It had seemed the perfect match. Finding him in bed with a fan had been a much needed wake-up call. From now on, Justin stayed away from musicians. Also, he had had his fair share of sex partners now, and realized that Ethan had in fact been a very mediocre lover.

But still, even without Ethan, Brian had acted like a prick, and now he was a stalking prick. It didn’t help that he was so good looking. Even Daphne, usually Justin’s number one supporting friend, was looking at Brian with shiny eyes. Well, he just had to endure it. Brian would probably finally move to a new location and annoy someone else.

Of course, that’s not what happened. After 2 weeks of the same treatment, one day, instead of just leaving with his trick du jour, Brian stepped into the diner after playing. This created quite a shock, the patrons who had been betting on Brian’s choice screaming at him to either go back outside and make his pick or at least tell them who he would have chosen. Brian told them that no-one was to his taste today and added that he had a meeting the next day with some music producer who was greatly impressed by his skills so his days of playing in the street were over. This got him loud clapping and praising which Brian took with a sickening fake modesty, before going to sit at the counter.

Justin just stood behind the counter, looking totally unimpressed. They glared at each other for a good minute before Justin sighed and took out his notepad. 

"What will it be?"

"I told you not to wait too long for me, Blondie. Don’t say I didn’t you give you your chance."

"Yeah, somehow I’ll live. So what do you want?"

"You’re such an arrogant shit, you know that?"

Now that was unexpected. Justin gaped at him.

"I’m an arrogant shit?"

"You think you’re so much better than me ; just because everyone here says you’re going to be the new Andy Warhol, doesn’t mean other people can’t be talented too, you know? Or are you just jealous that I’m getting my break before you are? "

"The fuck?? You act like you’re God’s gift to all of us mere peasants, you expect me to beg you to let me suck you dick, and I’m the arrogant one? And you really want me to believe that music deal joke?"

Brian looked at him with great satisfaction.

"You are jealous."

"Just because I don’t want to fuck you, I’m jealous of your imaginary success?"

"Imaginary? You think I made up this big business meeting? You’re not only jealous, you’re petty. Doesn’t matter what you think anyway. Tomorrow, I’ll be signing my first contract, and in a year you’ll be hearing my music everywhere you go. You wannabe Picasso will still be struggling to get your degree when I’ll be touring the world."

"Get real Brian! You’re no musician, no singer and no guitarist. Whoever set you on this meeting probably just wants to fuck you because you’re so hot!"

Justin could have slapped himself. That was not what he had intended to say. Brian looked at him triumphantly.

"So that was your problem? You want me but I didn’t court you on my knees with flowers and chocolates? Your ego cost you a great fuck, Blondie. Guess I won’t be seeing you."

And Brian left, leaving a very pissed Justin steaming behind.

 

A year passed, with no news from Brian. He seemed to have disappeared from Liberty Avenue. Not that Justin missed him, of course, but well, he was curious. The only thing certain was that he was not on the radio, or in music stores, on even on YouTube. Not that Justin really checked, of course. 

But Brian had made life quite intense when he was here. And even if his personality was for shit, he was nice to look at. Maybe they could have been friends, in other circumstances. 

Then Justin was invited to a student’s party held on campus at Carnegie-Mellon. He never went there, not being a very social person, and mostly avoided all student events. But Daphne was going and he was worried about her. She tended to drink a bit too much at parties, and there were some rumors of a girl having been assaulted a few months earlier. At least he would make sure she came home safe.

As predicted, he was bored as hell, while Daphne was having the time of her life. She wasn’t drunk so he considered he could leave her for a few minutes and went outside for a smoke. There was another guy outside smoking and Justin was going to move away but something was familiar in the tall silhouette…

"Brian!" Justin hadn’t expected his voice to sound so happy. Brian turned around, and looked at him blankly. 

"Blondie. Small world."

Justin couldn’t help but smile. He had been a bit worried, with Brian disappearing right after his mysterious meeting. It was nice to see him, looking as gorgeous as always.

"It’s good to see you, Brian. So you’re a student here? What’s your major?"

Brian studied him for a while then seemed to relax a little.

"I’m aiming for a Master of Advertising degree."

"Yeah? I can see you in advertising, you certainly have the charisma needed to convince people."

Brian smiled.

"I remember that I couldn't convince you of anything."

Justin smiled back.

"I’m glad that you had a back up plan. You really aren’t much of a musician."

Brian blew some smoke.

"I didn’t have a back up plan. I really thought I could make it in music. My friends had been telling me how talented I was for so long. Not that they know anything about music, but it was a nice dream."

There was some silence before Brian spoke again.

"You were right about the producer. The guy didn’t even have an office, he tried to jump me as soon as I stepped into his shitty apartment. I punched him and ran away. That got me thinking, so I decided it was time to try something serious. I was lucky to get a student loan since I was excellent in high school; and here I am."

"Well, at least you won’t have any regrets, you tried your dream." said Justin gently.

"Yeah…you still think I’m hot?"

Justin couldn’t help laughing.

"Yes, very hot."

"So should I serenade you? I still have my guitar. And I know a lot of new songs."

"Only if I can sketch you while you play."

They were standing very close to each other now. 

"So, Blondie. Your place or mine?"

"Always the romantic. Yours. My roommate likes you a bit too much, she might try to spy on us."


End file.
